Emily Rapp Black on Writing the Hardest Things

Memoir Nation explores the hardest things this week with guest Emily Rapp Black. Her new book is I Would Die If I Were You, part memoir, part how-to, that supports writers through writing trauma and the things that won’t let us go, and how to stay the course. In this week’s show, we talk a lot about process—doing the work, the permission to write what is calling to be written, and how to shake things up when you’re struggling. We talk about being in the mess, not worrying about your book being right for everyone, and how to grapple with the things other people say—like I would die if I were you. There is so much wisdom and grace in this interview, and in Rapp Black’s new book. In this week’s trend, we cover Sarah Wynn-Williams’s memoir, Careless People, in an effort to continue the upward sales trajectory of this book that Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg are desperate to silence.

Emily Rapp Black is the author of Poster Child: A Memoir, The Still Point of the Turning World, which wasa New York Times bestseller, Editor’s Pick, and a finalist for the PEN-USA Award; Sanctuary, a New York Times Editor’s Pick; Frida Kahlo and My Left Leg; and most recently, I Would Die If I Were You: Notes on Art and Truthtelling. A former Fulbright scholar, she was educated at Harvard, Trinity College-Dublin, Saint Olaf College, and the University of Texas-Austin. Her work has appeared in VOGUE, the New York Times, The Sun, TIME, the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times and other publications. She is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California-Riverside. 

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